A lash egg is not technically an "egg" at all, but instead is a rubbery mass that a hen sometimes lays near the end of her laying cycle.

More common in commercial layers, hens forced to lay year round and older hens, and overweight hens, lash eggs often don't show up in backyard flocks until later in a layers' life, if at all.

According to the experts at Your Chickens magazine, it is actually part of the chicken's reproductive system that breaks down and collapses and ends up being expelled through the oviduct.

That hen will not generally lay any more eggs after passing the lash egg, and will often die within six months.

A lash egg can also be the sign of infection in the oviduct, usually E.coli or mycoplasma.

Soft-shelled or wrinkly eggs can be a precursor to a lash egg, as can egg binding.

Antibiotics can be administered if you know which hen laid the lash egg, or a more natural route of adding apple cider vinegar to the water and some fresh or dried oregano to your flock's diet to act as a natural antibiotic.

Normally an odd egg is just a one-time glitch and nothing to worry about, but it's always good to have something to reference....just in case.